Android Pay is coming to take Wallet's NFC duties, but Wallet isn't dying.

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Here's the "warm welcome" for the new Google Wallet app. You can send money to friends and not much else.

The app is locked with a PIN, and you can see your balance and transaction history.

There is even a page for the Google Wallet card.

The old logo was a clever combination of a "W" and the NFC logo. The new one is... a sideways tornado? Without the NFC connection there's no reason for the W to be so oddly shaped.

The new Google Wallet does not actually replace the old Google Wallet. The new Google Wallet is a brand new app, and the old Google Wallet will transform into Android Pay. For now, you get both.

With the launch of Android Pay, Google's new NFC payments system, quickly approaching, it felt like the days of Google's old NFC payments system (Google Wallet) were numbered. That is apparently not the case, though, as Google Wallet just got a big revamp and will be sticking around as a money-sending app.

The new Google Wallet app has been stripped down to only transfer money from a debit card, bank account, or Google Wallet Balance to the recipient. This is the same functionality that has been in the old Google Wallet app and Gmail's "Attach money" feature, now in a standalone app. Other than that, there's a way to look at your past transfers and even a section for managing your "Google Wallet Card," which Google initially released as a stop-gap for when NFC didn't work.

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There is no NFC or loyalty card functionality here anymore. Those features will all move to Android Pay once the app launches. And the new Google Wallet app does not actually replace the old Google Wallet app—the upcoming Wallet app is a brand-new app under the package name "com.google.android.apps.gmoney" while the old Google Wallet—"com.google.android.apps.walletnfcrel"—will eventually be upgraded into Android Pay. Today, you can have both apps installed on your device and have "Wallet" and "Wallet" sitting right next to each other in the app drawer.

Besides the new design, there's a new app icon, too—a flattened, sharper version of the Google Wallet "W." The original logo was a clever combination of a capital W and the radio wave logo that NFC uses. With the new app having no NFC functionality, the logo doesn't make quite as much sense.

This is all a little confusing, isn't it? There are two money apps now. This new Google Wallet app means Android Pay won't be the one-stop-shop for transferring money on Android the way Google Wallet was. Android Pay will handle tap-and-pay and online transactions, but apparently not sending money to friends. So if you want to send money to a store, that's Android Pay. Sending money to a website? That's Android Pay, too. Sending money to a friend? That's this other app.

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Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo